Most people use their days off for relaxation, but one man in Lutz, Florida, uses his day off to clean the headstones of veterans. Andrew Lumish, a Lutz native, spends the one day a week he has off from his carpet cleaning job to give back to the former servicemembers in his community. Lumish's job gives him access to plenty of cleaning supplies that he uses to remove the dirt and grime from granite, marble and other headstone materials. He has even researched methods that will prevent damage to the stones.
"It's something that I feel I should do to give them the proper respect for fighting for our country," Lumish told ABC Action News. "And they may not [have] any family still living. These aren't just stones sitting in a cemetery in Florida. These are real people. I think about their lives."
As a self-proclaimed history buff, Lumish admits that he sometimes does research on the names of veterans who fought in the Civil War to find out more about the people whose stones he is cleaning.
Lumish has been doing the cleaning anonymously for two-and-a-half years, according to ABC Action News, and he plans to continue as long as cemeteries will allow him.